New Warriors (Earth-616)
Team Status: Active Base of Operations: Currently: Mobile across United States, Formerly: Ambrose Building in Manhattan, the "Crash-Pad" near the Brooklyn Bridge in Manhattan (a closed Taylor Foundation factory), a mothballed firehouse in the DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) section of NYC. Organization Founders: Night Thrasher, Nova, Marvel Boy, Firestar, Namorita, Speedball Team Leaders: Currently: Night Thrasher, Formerly: Justice, Namorita, Silhouette, and Bandit Active Members: Night Thrasher (Dwayne Taylor), Nova (Richard Rider), Namorita (Nita Prentiss; formerly known as Kymaera), Speedball (Robbie Baldwin), Microbe, and Debrii Inactive Members: Aegis, Bandit. Bolt, Dagger, Darkhawk, Firestar, Helix, Hindsight, Justice (formerly known as Marvel Boy), Alex Power, Rage, Scarlet Spider, Silhouette, Speedball II, Timeslip, Turbo I (Mickey Musashi), Turbo II (Mike Jeffries) Former Support Staff: Chord, Smartship Friday, Sprocket, Tai Origin Teenager Dwayne Taylor formed the team by bringing together a disparate group of teen heroes which he had observed. Place of Formation: New York First Appearance: THOR Vol. 1 #411, (chronologically) NEW WARRIORS Vol. 1 #1 History Dwayne Taylor's parents were murdered when he was a child, and so he swore vengeance on all criminals. In order to do so, he trained under the auspices of his guardians Tai and Chord, who maintained the multinational Taylor Foundation, set up by Dwayne'd father before he died. When he had finally reached a plateau in which he felt he could begin the "fight," he organised a team of teenage heroes. Nova was a former Champion of Xandar whose powers were reactivated by Taylor throwing him off a tall building, Marvel Boy was the younger version of Vance Astro of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Firestar was a former member of the Hellions, Namorita was Prince Namor's cousin, and Speedball was a teenager from Springdale, Connecticut who had been involved in an accident at a laboratory. Their first battle was against a reformed Terrax. Over the years, the team went through many changes. It was revealed that Tai, Dwayne's housekeeper, was actually a Cambodian sorceress, who had orchestrate the creation of the team for the purpose of sacrificing the "children" to the Well of All Things. Night Thrasher caused a lot of trouble with the team, as he had a tendency to focus more on his own interests than on his teammates. On numerous occasions, he would either quit, take a "leave of absence," or be kicked off the team by the other members. Recently, the Warriors seemed to have disbanded again, or lapsed into a period of inactivity. The full extent of their actions are unknown, but they've been spotted many times fighting major crisises that have hit NYC. They were on-hand to fight the hordes of HYDRA who attacked the city under Baron Strucker's command, and several of the team (Nova, Namorita, Justice and Firestar) were mind-controlled and used as soldiers by the Purple Man during the 10 days he held the city hostage. They were forced to fight the New Thunderbolts in a failed attempt to keep the reformed villains from saving the city. However, Thrash reunited the team to fight a crime wave of supervillains who'd moved to small-town America, out of the view of the hero community. His finances had been hit hard, so he made a deal with a production company to film the team's car trip and market it as a reality TV show, which doesn't sit well with all the Warriors. Thrash also brought a new member onto the team Microbe, without explaining the real reason for his presence to the other Warriors -- he's an orphan that Thrash legally adopted. Members The New Warriors eventually became a "who's who" of teen heroes in the Marvel Universe. Members would include Silhouette, Chord's daughter and sometime-girlfriend of Thrasher, Darkhawk, a sometime-Avenger and vigilante, Rage, a former Avenger kicked off the team because of his young age (14), the Turbos, Mickey Musashi and Mike Jeffries, two college students who shared part-ownership of the Torpedo's old armour, Dagger, the teen runaway and partner of Cloak, Alex Power, a member of Power Pack, who in his time with the team stole his siblings' powers and was known as both Powerpax and Powerhouse, Hindsight, a non-powered "friend" of Robbie (Speedball) Baldwin's, who blackmailed his way onto the team, but proved to be a valuable strategist, Speedball II, a Marvel 2099 era teen scientist, who replaced Robbie on the team because he needed a kinetically powered indidiviual to host him until the time came for him to face a world-threatening time traveller, Advent, Bandit, Night Thrasher's illegitimate half-brother, who led the team while his girlfriend Sil and the other Warriors were kidnapped by the Sphinx, the Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly, who joined the team after the Warriors helped him and Peter Parker Spider-Man during the Maximum Clonage storyline, Helix, whose evolutionary powers were activated in one of the Jackal's experiments during the aforementioned story, and Timeslip, a time-manipulator, who sought out the Warriors after she started having visions of Speedball's impending death. During the second series, the Warriors were joined by Bolt, a mutant teen who'd been associated with the X-Men and Maverick, and who was infected with the Legacy Virus, and Aegis, a new urban vigilante with a mystical breastplate from Greek myth. In their third series, the team included Microbe, an obese kid who can 'talk' to germs. The New New Warriors Special note must be made of the storyline "Time and Time Again," in which the core roster of Warriors was kidnapped and a brand new team was formed. Led by Bandit, it called upon the team's allies Darkhawk and Turbo, their ally Dagger, and Powerpax, who had earlier been identified as a potential member by Dwayne (Thrash) and Carlton (Hindsight). Marvel's original plan had been to spin this team off into a "New" book, presumably retaining the title "New," and having the "old" members continue in a re-named "Warriors" title. However, sales diminished, and after the original Warriors were rescued, the "New" New Warriors mostly returned to their solo heroing. Villains The Folding Circle was a team made up of children of the soldiers who discovered Tai and the Temple of the Dragon's Breadth. Psionex was created by Genetech as a new hero team, and although the members were best described as "psychotic" and did fight the Warriors on numerous occasions, they never actually commmitted crimes, and in fact were even led by Night Thrasher at one point. The Force of Nature was a team of element-themed former villains, assembled by Project: Earth to fight environment-damaging companies and nations. The Sphinxes were both a man and a woman, and eventually one androgynous being, who manipulated reality Time and Time Again. Allies Air Force: Although Cardinal and his friends started off as Mercs fighting against the Warriors, they would later reform help the team out. Cardinal is even considered by most Warriors readers as a "potential member." Spider-Man: The team itself called upon Spidey's aid during the Hero Killers Annuals, in which the Sphinx was kidnapping and murdering heroes, and in their fight against Darkling during the Forces of Darkness... storyline. Spidey has also teamed up with individual, or smaller groups of Warriors, such as in the Sidekick's Revenge storyline. X-Force: The team first crossed paths during the Kings of Pain Annuals, where they shared somewhat of a friendly rivalry. They would again team up for the Child's Play cross-over. Some members of X-Force were also former teammates of Firestar in her time with the Hellions. Garthan Saal was the third to carry the name of Nova. Originally, he came to earth in a quest to kill the space-pirate Nebula, who had destroyed his home planet. Later, he would first try to kill, and then eventually did steal, Richard Rider's powers. For a long time, Rich held a grudge against Saal, but when Saal helped the team in a number of battles, he changed his mind. Also, Ultragirl, Hybrid. Personal Lives The original New Warriors series was ground-breaking in that it touched on many issues not normally dealt with in comics. Marvel Boy was domestically abused by his mutant-hating father for years, and one day he lashed out and accidently killed his father with his telekinetic powers. (He went to prison for it, but was eventually given an early parole, and returned to the team as Justice.) Firestar and Justice were planning on getting married and having children, but discovered that Firestar's microwave powers were causing her to become sterile. Namorita once drunkenly slept with a man who turned out to be the leader of the Poison Memories gang, who stole the Warriors' personal information and launched an assault on their families. The Poison Memories shot and almost killed Firestar's father, cut off of Nova's brother's fingers off, and murdered Rage's grandmother, which led Rage to kill the gang's leader in cold blood. Firestar's friend was once raped by a boy at a party, and Firestar almost castrated him in anger. Statistics Total Members: (Currently) 5, (Largest Roster Ever) 13 Allies: X-Force (Cable and Chord actually once fought together in their mercenary days), Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Generation X, Air Force Enemies: Sphinx, Folding Circle, Force of Nature, Psionex, Volx, Advent, Heavy Mettle, Zarrko, Miscellaneous Transportation: Currently, the team is travelling the country in a van, with a TV crew. However, historically, Dwayne owned a helicopter, piloted by Sprocket and Nova had a detachable hoverpod from his Xandar battleship orbiting Earth. Bibliography * NEW WARRIORS Vol. 1 #1-75 (March, 1991 – April, 1995) * NEW WARRIORS Vol. 2 #0-10 (1992 – 1994) * NEW WARRIORS Vol. 3 #1 * NEW WARRIORS BEGINNINGS Trade Paperback * MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS #159-163 & 166-167 * ULTRA GIRL #1-3 Related Articles * Excelsior * Generation X * X-Force External Links * New Warriors Continuity Conundrum * New Warriors Message Board Category:Teams Category:Active Teams Category:Good Teams